MLB CONFIDENTIAL: The Financial Documents Baseball Doesn't Want You To See

[Phokus]

Break up the stupid US pro sports monopolies and institute a european style, open market sports setup with relegation & promotion (the 2 worst teams are dropped to the lower league and the 2 best teams from lower leagues move up to higher leagues), no salary cap, no stupid draft, and lower professional leagues instead of college indentures. This is what would need to be implemented before I really cared for pro sports here. Fuck the oligopolist, state welfare receiving owners and their union supported employees.

I don't see what's wrong with the draft (other than top rookies being overpaid) and no salary cap would basically ruin sports like football.

 

[rasczak]

I don't see what's wrong with the draft (other than top rookies being overpaid) and no salary cap would basically ruin sports like football.

wouldn't it force all rookies to come in on a level playing field and have to work hard to earn their contracts?

 

[preslove]

I don't see what's wrong with the draft (other than top rookies being overpaid) and no salary cap would basically ruin sports like football.

The way it works in Europe is that instead of players going to college and working for free, they go to lower leagues and smaller market teams that develop their talent and then sell their contracts to bigger teams/leagues. Drafts are horrible, especially in the NBA, because they send talent to random, often shitty teams. Look at LeBron James. Look at Kevin Durant. Also, if a team screws up, they waste tons of money on some unproven rookie.

As for salary caps, I srsly doubt it would ruin the NFL. Just like everything else said in this thread, never believe a freaking word a pro sports owner says.

 

[Phokus]

wouldn't it force all rookies to come in on a level playing field and have to work hard to earn their contracts?

so they would be paid all the same? that wouldn't work. The problem with rookies (at least in the NFL) is that the top ones get huge guaranteed contracts. The NFL is talking about making a rookie wage scale where rookies get paid much less. Their contracts just need to be heavily incentivized.

But anyway, the salary cap needs to stay. If the NFL ever became like baseball, i'd quit watching (even though my team would probably benefit from it)

 

[Phokus]

The way it works in Europe is that instead of players going to college and working for free, they go to lower leagues and smaller market teams that develop their talent and then sell their contracts to bigger teams/leagues. Drafts are horrible, especially in the NBA, because they send talent to random, often shitty teams. Look at LeBron James. Look at Kevin Durant. Also, if a team screws up, they waste tons of money on some unproven rookie.

As for salary caps, I srsly doubt it would ruin the NFL. Just like everything else said in this thread, never believe a freaking word a pro sports owner says.

Wait, so you are saying that only big market/big money teams should get the best talent? That's a shitty league system.

Also, i'm not sure what you're talking about with the last sentence. The NFL has a salary cap (and also salary floor) and it works well. No salary cap = shitty league that mimicks the MLB.

 

[Phokus]

The Florida Marlins share the stadium with the Miami Dolphins, right?

This is what their stadium looks like on an average game day:

Are they seriously trying to get a publicly funded stadium?

 

[AstroManLuca]

I hate how the Vikings are threatening to leave town if they can't get a stadium built for them.

They refuse to contribute more than a few tens of millions of dollars and won't be satisfied with anything less than a several hundred million dollar stadium. It's ridiculous. This is a private company asking an already cash-strapped state to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars so they can increase their profit margins.

I love the Vikings and I'd hate to see them go, but I also hate how they point to other states/teams as precedent for government paying for stadiums instead of teams doing it. We're not exactly in a position to provide them with a stadium.

It would suck if they left but I'm not sure they're worth keeping. I think if they left I would become a Packer fan. Yes, really. They're our hated rivals BUT they are also a small-city team owned by the fans and they play outdoors (the way football is meant to be played) in the most historic stadium in the NFL. You can guarantee the Packers won't be going anywhere.

 

[BoberFett]

Are they seriously trying to get a publicly funded stadium?

Get? Sounds from this article like they already got.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-marlinsfinancials082410

 

[rasczak]

so they would be paid all the same? that wouldn't work. The problem with rookies (at least in the NFL) is that the top ones get huge guaranteed contracts. The NFL is talking about making a rookie wage scale where rookies get paid much less. Their contracts just need to be heavily incentivized.

But anyway, the salary cap needs to stay. If the NFL ever became like baseball, i'd quit watching (even though my team would probably benefit from it)

I like the incentives, but i believe, they should all start from a base scale and work their way up. Not some payscale based on their draft position. obviously, to protect themselves from becoming indentured servants, they have a 3 year max on their rookie contracts, which affords them the ability to sign for a much higher wage if they've earned it, as well, as play the free agent field to ensure they get fair market value.

 

[BoberFett]

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/7204546

 

[JS80]

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/7204546

I can't wait for an expose on pro sports team bribes with city officials

 

[The Boston Dangler]

and yet the NL has 16 teams and the AL has 14 (and has since milwaukee moved there in 1998) :hmm:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwau..._.2F_.22We.27re_taking_this_thing_National.22

In March 1995, two new franchises— the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays—were awarded by Major League Baseball, to begin play in 1998. It was decided to add one new team to each league. However, it soon became clear that it would be impractical to have an odd number of teams per league: baseball would either have to give teams many more off-days than in the past, or interleague play would have to be extended year-round, or both. In order for MLB officials to continue the existing schedule, where teams play almost every day and where interleague play is limited to a few days per year, both leagues would need to carry an even number of teams. The decision was made to have one existing club switch leagues.

 

[OutHouse]

but between all those rich people they can't pony up enough cash to build their own stadiums. They give a sob story about how the team will leave if they don't get their free stadium to the tune of several hundred million dollars and the city and/or state give in and raise taxes.

yup this is why the Denver Broncos got rid of the "D" on their helmets and went with the horse head. the owners were sending a clear message that if they didnt get a new mile high stadium built by the city they would move the team to a city who would.

 

[Homerboy]

I hate how the Vikings are threatening to leave town if they can't get a stadium built for them.

They refuse to contribute more than a few tens of millions of dollars and won't be satisfied with anything less than a several hundred million dollar stadium. It's ridiculous. This is a private company asking an already cash-strapped state to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars so they can increase their profit margins.

I love the Vikings and I'd hate to see them go, but I also hate how they point to other states/teams as precedent for government paying for stadiums instead of teams doing it. We're not exactly in a position to provide them with a stadium.

It would suck if they left but I'm not sure they're worth keeping. I think if they left I would become a Packer fan. Yes, really. They're our hated rivals BUT they are also a small-city team owned by the fans and they play outdoors (the way football is meant to be played) in the most historic stadium in the NFL. You can guarantee the Packers won't be going anywhere.

This is the most true thing I have seen in ATOT in a long long time.

 

[techs]

Ugh, teams with a larger fan base should be able to pay their players more.
For example it's b.s. to have a salary cap that says a team in New York should only be allowed to have the same payroll as a team in Milwaukee.

In fact, look at how that has hurt the NBA. The television numbers and attendance have been dropping ever since the Knicks crashed and burned.

 

[Train]

Ever since my wife started her own business Ive learned to take P&L statements with a grain of salt. A good accountant can make them say whatever they want.

This is why I trust accountants less than lawyers.

A former boss of mine was a long time accountant. He described accounting perfectly with this joke:

A CEO of a major corporation interviews 3 people to fill his accountanting position. He asks each of them "what's 2 + 2?"
The first one replies "4"
The second one replies "5!"
THe third replies "What do you want it to be?"
The CEO hired the 3rd guy.

Another variation on the joke ends with something like "The 3rd guy ends up rich, the 2nd guy ends up in jail, the 1st guy ends up flipping burgers"

 

[Gooberlx2]

How can the people of Milwaukee continue to support the Brewers? These are staggering numbers for a team that doesn't even try to make the playoffs.

Beats me. When I lived there, I never supported the use of public taxes to build that bullshit stadium. Such numbers vindicate my position (to me).

 

[SillyOReilly]

I grew up loving baseball, and got free tickets for donating platelets.

I still didn't go, free or not.